Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-11-23

| may nave uO cspcCioA 0PPiCoA"'io", "A>
flash upon you the splendors of its immorta
nature. Behold the shield and the swort
of its coming conflict!
1 propose in this discourse to set fortf
what consider to be some of the error
prevalent in the training of children.
First remark that MANY err In tot
great severity or too great lenieDcy Of
family government. Between parental tyr
amy and ruinous laxativeness of discipline
there is a medium. Sometimes the father
errs on one side, and the mother on the
other side. Good family government is al
important. Anarchy and misruie in the
domestic circle is the forerunner of anarchy
and misrule in the State. What a repulsive
spectacle is home without order or dis.
cipline, disobedience and impudence, and
anger and falsehood lifting their horrid
| front in the place which should be conse-
Grated to all that is holy, and peaceful and
beautiful. In the attempt to avoid all this,
and bring the children under proper laws
and regulations, parents have sometimes
carried themselves with great rigor. John
Howard, who was merciful to the prisons
and lazarettos, was merciless in the treat
ment of his children. John Milton knew
everything but how to tram his family
Severe and unreasonable was he in bis car
/
him in four or five languages, but would
not allow them to learn any of them, for he
said that one tongue was enough for a
woman. Their reading was mechanical
drudgery, when, if they had understood the
languages they read, the employment of
reading might have been luxury. No
wonder his children despised him, and
stealthily sold his books, and hoped for his
death. In all ages there has been need of
society for prevention of cruelty to chill
dren. When Barbara was put to death by
her father because she had countermanded
his order, and had three windows put in
room instead of two, this cruel parent was
q type of many who have acted the Nero
and the Robespierre in the home CIRCLE
The heart sickens at what you sometimes
see, even in families that pretend to be
Christian-perpetual scolding, and hair
pulling. and ear-boxing, and humping, and
stamping, and fault-fndiDg, and teasing,
until the children are vexed beyond bounds
and growl in the sleeve and pout and rebel,
and vow within themselves that in after
days they will retaliate for the cruelties
practiced. Many home has become as
full of dispute as was the home of John
O'Groat, who built his house at the most
northeriy point in Great Britain. And
tradition says that the house had eight
windows, and eight doors, and table of
eight sides, because he had eight children,
and the only way to keep them out Of bitter
quarrel was to have separate apartment
for each one of them.
That child's nature is too delicate to be
worked upon by sledge-hammer, and gouge,
and pile driver. Such fierce lashing, in
stead of breaking the high mettle to bit and
trace. will make it dash off the more uncon-
trollable. Many seem to think that chill
dren are fax-not f1t for use till they have
been hetcheled and swingled. Some one
talking to child said /: 81 wonder what
makes that tree out there 80 crooked" -
The child replied II snppose it was trod
on while it was young" In some families
all the discipline is concentered upon one
child's head. If anything is done wrong,
the supposition is that George did it. He
broke the latch. He left open the GATE
He hacked the bannisters. He whitfield
sticks on the carpet. And George shall be
scapegoat for all domestic misunderstand-
ings and suspicious. If things are wrong
in the culinary department., in comes the
mother and says, angrily ''Where is
George ?" If business matters are perplex-
ing at the store, in comes the father at
night and says, angrily, "Where is
such one singled out for suspicion and
castigation. All the sweet flowers of his
soul blasted under this perpetual north
east storm, he curses the day in which he
was born. Safer the child in an ark of
bulrushes on the Nile, among the croco-
diles, than in an elegant mansion, amid
such domestic gorgons. A mother was
passing along the street one day and came
up to her little child, who did not see her
approach, and her child was saying to her
playmate: "You good-for-nothing little
scamp. you come right into the house this
minute or l will beat you till the skin
comes off" The mother broke in, saying j:
| "Why, Lizzie, l am surprised to hear you
talk like that to any oner' ''Oh." said the
child, Il was only playing, and he is my
| little boy, and am scoiding him, as you
did me this morning." Children are apt to
| be echoes Of their parents.
| Safer in Bethlehem manger among cat
tie and camels, with gentle Mary to watch
the little innocent, than the most extrava-
CANT nursery over which Gods star of peace
never stood. The trapper extiuguishes the
flames on the prairie by fighting FIRE with
fire, but you cannot, with the fire of your
own disposition, put out the fire of a child's 9
| disposition.
|
and rule children by too great leniency.
| The surgeon is not unkind because not
| withstandiug the resistance of his patient
he goes straight on with firm hand and un-
falterlng heart to take of the gapgrene.
Nor is the parent less affectionate and faith
full because, notwithstanding all violent re-
monstrances on the part of the child, he
with the firmest discipline advance to the
cutting off of its evil inclinations The
Bible says: "Chasten thy son while there is
hope, and let not thy soul spare for his cry
ing" Childish rage unchecked will. after
a while, become a hurricane. Childish
petuleoce will grow up into misanthropy.
Childish rebellion will develop into the law
lessness of riot and sedition. If you would
ruin the child dance to his every caprice and
stuff him with confectionery. Before you
are aware of it that boy of six years will go
down the street, cigar in his mouth and
| ready on any corner with his comrades to
compare pugilistic attainments. The parent
| who allows the child to grow up without
ever having learned the great duty of obedi-
ence and submission has prepared Cup of
burning gall for his own lips and appalling
destruction for his descendant. Remember
Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phine-
has.
of children is laying out of theory and
and following it without arranging it to
varieties of disposition. In every family
you will find striking differences oftemper-
ament. This child is too timid, and that
too bold, and this too miserly, and that zoo
wasteful; this too inactive, and that too
boisterous. Now, the farmer who should
plant corn and wheat aud turnips in just
the same way, then put them through one
hopper and grind them in the same mill,
would not be 80 much of fool as the parents
who should attempt to discipline and edu
cate all their children in the same manner.
It needs skillful hand to adjust these
checks and balances. The rigidity of gov
ernment which is necessary to hold in this
impetuous nature would utterly crush that
flsxie disposition, while the gentle reproof
that would suffice for the latter would, when
used on the former, be like attempting to
hold champing Bucephalus with rens of
gossamer. God gives US in the disposition
Of each child hint as to how we ought to
train him, and. as God in the mental struc-
ture of our children indicates what mode of